The Middle East

Israel and Gaza

Preparing for war

WITH the five-day aerial battle between Israel and Hamas poised to escalate into all-out ground war, the unlikely figure of Egypt's Islamist president, Muhammad Morsi, is emerging in Israeli minds as the one regional leader who can bring about a credible ceasefire. Mr Morsi declared on November 17th that there were "indications"—but no certainty—that the two sides could use indirect diplomacy to end the present round of violence. Mr Morsi is in close contact with the US and European governments. He held talks in Cairo with Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Qatari ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, both of whom are anxious to contribute to cease-fire diplomacy.

The Egyptian president, a long-time leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke of "the Israeli side", referring to Israel by its name instead of using some deprecatory sobriquet like "the Zionist enemy". That is small consolation for an Israeli establishment still hankering after the much easier rapport it had with Egypt's ousted Mubarak regime, especially in matters military. Israel uttered ominous warnings during the early months of the "Arab Spring" about the dangers of the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood rising to power in Egypt. Mr Morsi's election victory elicited further dour prognostications. Like Hamas, its ideological and political acolyte, the Brotherhood does not recognise Israeli sovereignty.

But Mr Morsi has walked a careful line between Israel's unpopularity with his domestic constituency and Egypt's strategic and political interest in maintaining its 33-year-old peace treaty with the Jewish state. This caution was in evidence when, in response to Israel's air attacks in Gaza last week, he chose to recall his ambassador for consultations—a relatively moderate form of diplomatic protest. His dispatch of the prime minister, Hisham Kandil, on a "solidarity visit" to Gaza on November 16th was a clear signal of Egypt's desire to mediate, and was recognised as such by Israeli officials and public alike.

Hence, the moment—brief, alas—of relief and hope that palpably swept the country on the morning of November 18th. People awoke to reports of an almost entirely peaceful night in the south, and to local and foreign media speculation of an imminent ceasefire to be brokered by Egypt. No rockets from Gaza disturbed these early morning reveries.

The night had not passed peacefully in Gaza, however. Israeli warplanes bombed rocket launch-sites and other Hamas targets. Palestinian medical sources reported at least two deaths and many injuries. Overall Gaza deaths stand at around 50, half of them non-combatants. (Update: By Sunday afternoon that figure had risen to nearly 70; among the day's fatalities were four young children, all brothers, and five women, all members of one family killed in a bombing attack aimed at a Hamas military commander.)

The near-silence on the Israeli side was shattered at breakfast time with a multiple-rocket attack on the southern town of Ashkelon. Two missiles penetrated the "Iron Dome" defence system and fell in the town, causing minor injuries and extensive damage. In mid-morning, for the third day running, a missile was fired from Gaza toward Tel Aviv. It was brought down by Iron Dome; a piece of burning shrapnel fell onto a car and destroyed it.

Hope inevitably dimmed. The Israeli army, meanwhile, is building up its forces for a ground invasion, if the government so decides. Tanks and artillery are being hauled to jumping-off sites. The government has approved the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists. Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, announced at cabinet during the morning that "the IDF [Israel Defence Force] is prepared for a significant expansion of its operations."

Mr Netanyahu reported that more than 1,000 "terrorist targets" in Gaza had been bombed since Wednesday, when the air force killed the top Hamas military commander, Ahmad Jabari. "We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the [other] terrorist organisations," the prime minister said.

If Mr Morsi does succeed in knitting together a ceasefire soon, both Hamas and Israel will claim success in the subsequent battle of perceptions. For Hamas, the lasting image will be of Israeli citizens of Tel Aviv and of Jerusalem running for cover. Despite the huge disparity in fire-power, Hamas will claim to have made good on its threats to bring large parts of Israel within range of its rockets.

For Israel, the image that its government will seek to project will be of the Hamas missiles being shot out of the sky time after time by the Israeli-developed, American-financed Iron Dome. Not all of them, granted. Some got through even in the areas where the IDF's five operational Iron Dome batteries were deployed. But the defence system has amply proved itself, in the Israeli view, and the government will now allocate emergency funding to cover all major population centres with Iron Dome batteries.

Yet another shoot out where both sides claim they're the victims, both sides claim the other started it, both sides follow the "eye for an eye" philosophy, and both sides will claim victory and the moral high ground... while the rest of the [sane] world (perhaps excluding the USA and a couple of Muslim states) continues to bang their heads on the table is despair.

What if Gaza would think about education an hapiness and not be obssessive about destroying israel?
And if Egypt would feed its own populatin and have the money which is given to the Gazaouis?
Tha obsession about Israel is the best way to yield the failure of all these muslim countries!

But Sharon also felt that once Israel left Gaza … and if there was continued aggression from Gaza … HE would have a free hand and pound them …

The 'reality' is … that world opinion does not allow Israeli 'pounding' of Palestinians … the world believes and has been sold the POV … that Israel must be very precise in its response to Arab/Muslim aggression … There is a double standard at play here that Sharon did not anticipate OTHERWISE … he would not have left Gaza and would have remained in military control of the Gaza Strip!

Why Israel killed Ahmed Jabari, a wing leader of Hamas?
Because Hamas Is ready to negotiate for Peace with negotiator Gershon Baskin. On the morning that he was killed, he hold a Proposal of Extended Ceased Fire. Jabari was going to drop a gigantic Peace proposal to Tel Aviv.
Why Israel launched premptive attack?
Because Israel got success in systematic provocations to bomb any Peace Efforts, to genocide Palestinians, and to forward Great Israel dreams.
Why Israel targeted Gaza War II?
Because Israel should display their war games in Gaza massacre as alternative to Iran.
Why not Iran?
Because in Gaza Open Prison, Israel got full impunity from their allies to do anything
Why Israel is closed to respect Human rights of Palestine?
Because the Palestinian babies they killed is not enough to be vampirized.
Why Israel dont want to annex West Bank?
Because Israel people would become a minority within their own state. So a snake problem to wear democracy jacket.
Why Israel wages an expensive war?
Because his likely slave, back support for them unconditionaly with aid billion US dollars.

The problem is Isreal own's teritory it does not police. This would be like unincorporated Oklahoma panHandle where all the gangsters went to 125 years ago. If Isreal owns the Gaza strip, they should police it themselves. And during WW II, Emperor Hirohito was never bombed from the air so that someOne would surrender Japan.

Israel doesn't care about the cost of occupation. Because of it, they get billions in US aid and tax-free donations from fanatical billionaires. On top of that, the International Community foots the bill of the PA, Israel's subcontractor in the West Bank to do the dirty job of policing the occupied. It's a perfect deal for Israel, so why change course?

Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank and continues to,remove the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem. Every year the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank grows.

What are the Palestinians supposed to do? Where are they supposed to go? They need a future. They need hope. But the expanding Israeli settlements remove any hope or prospect of a future. How can they possibly believe Israel wants peace when it is colonising the only place there can ever be a Palestinian state?

It is the Economnist's long-standing policy that articles are not by-lined, and blog posts only get initials. It's not an option for the authors. And it's not just for posts by this particular author or on this particular blog.

Boy,
Americans lost during the First Gulf War about 20 men. Iraqis lost many thousands. Try telling to Americans it does not look good for USA not matter how you slice it.
We can make another calculation. There are in our neighborhood 6 million Jews and 200 million Arabs/Muslims. If the count needs to be one for one - Israel will disappear in one year. However this is not the case.
And at last a small advice. Don't talk. Do. Come and stay a couple of days in the city of Ashdod or Ofakim. You will understand what does it mean to be under missile assault, even the Iron Dome is nearby. You will understand why women scream and children pee in the bed at nights and hopefully won't continue with crap.

One goal of the Israeli attack is arguably the cancellation or postponement sine die of the Palestinian candidacy to a place in the UN: few weeks ago it was evident that only Israel and to a minimal extent the US were opposed to such move.
Indeed it makes rational sense to have an official recognition of Palestine, as that would warrant reciprocity in conflict mediation. Not any longer now: Israel can easily point to the terroristic component of Hamas as main component of Palestine and thus deem this a non-state, a quasi-terrorist population. It is irrelevant if such view is correct or not: what counts is that once again the "other party" will stand no chances of being treated as an indipendent state. Mission accomplished. Pictures and videos of dead and wounded, of kids crying and mourners will only add the required pathos to keep all healthy developments in the freezer, for a long time.

I seem to recall "India who welcome all religious sect and creeds given them respect and honour" having a bit of trouble now and again with Muslims, and Sikhs.....
I note that in the subcontinent and the Middle East, Britain did not leave the region divided in stable fashion.

What “historical maps” you would prefer to look at? Ones that predates the Roman Empire perhaps? Do you know that Turks came to current Turkey from very far away? Do you know that Arab armies actually came, as you might guess, from what is called Arabian Peninsula and concurred the current Middle East. Would you like to return former eastern Prussia back to Germany?

The aerial battle between Israel and Hamas has proved that the Israelis will no longer be able to watch televisions sitting in the living rooms of their occupied homes, picture streams of the ongoing atrocities being committed by the Israeli Air Force and the Navy on the defenseless children,Women and elderly people of Gaza.They will have to run for shelter every where in the so called promised land if Netanyahu is not restrained by denying him another term.